At what age were you when you first bought your first home?

Redwino222

I was 25 - small apartment.  Bought for £85,000 sold two years later for £120,000.

onylon

I was 23 when I bought my London flat in 2010 and the deposit came from my own/my partners savings. 

RE: the "We saved up and went without to pay our 14% interest mortgage because thats what you did in them days" comments. My parents were actually gifted their deposit, rode the property boom and ended up with several properties. The very same property boom that made my parents wealthy now makes it very difficult for my younger siblings (who missed the post 2008 slump) to get onto the housing ladder without help. That help is obviously coming from money my parents gained through investing cheaply borrowed money into the housing market. We are in a vicious cycle that keeps property prices sky high and reduces socal mobility but it is absolutely nothing to do with young people, fancy coffee or avocado toast.

Marvel1

24, 2007  peak price before crash.
Not recovered what I paid, but my mortgage is peanuts due to the interest rate dropping.

Do I like it here? No
Would I move? No - the mortgage is as i said peanuts.

orchid2010

robatwork said:

orchid2010 said:

East Anglia, 19.  Interest rates went up twice before our first mortgage payment and topped out at over 16%.  Really tough.

Was that 1987? I remember being on a student placement and people were absolutely cacking themselves about the interest rates. I think they went from about 9% to 16% very quickly - hundreds of pounds per month and a huge %age of most people's salary.

Yes it was late 1980's, then Poll tax came along our rates were approx £250 a year for the house and Poll Tax was £365 each adult for the year,.  Absolute nightmare.

tink_1983

Bedfordshire. 29 yrs old. Bank of mum and nan and unlaws provided 35k

steampowered

London, age 26, a few years ago, £100k deposit. 

A £100k deposit is the average for first time buyers in London these days. 

TheProfessional

steampowered said:

London, age 26, a few years ago, £100k deposit. 

A £100k deposit is the average for first time buyers in London these days. 

How does anyone go about building a 100k deposit. Even with parents gifting that seems like such an insurmountable amount. 

robatwork

TheProfessional said:

steampowered said:

London, age 26, a few years ago, £100k deposit. 

A £100k deposit is the average for first time buyers in London these days. 

How does anyone go about building a 100k deposit. Even with parents gifting that seems like such an insurmountable amount. 

Not terribly unusual for a good London computer developer to earn £50k even at age 22.  So if he's living at home fully expensed by parents, with £5k travel expenses a year, living frugally you can easily save £2000 per month. 50 months later - £100k, at age 26.

Apintplease

1994, - 30 years old, OH 33, not a penny to our names and we bought on the shared ownership scheme which allowed you to buy on the open market

We were giving up a Housing Association flat in SW to get on the scheme so all our fees were paid, plus the rent for the first year.

It worked well for us, interest rates were still high, I was poorly paid in the NHS, and we bought the worst property in the best area so even with all the fees and the share we had to give back when we sold, it made us near mortgage free with our next purchase  ( and a 500 mile move out of London lol )

I remember though worrying at the time how we were ever going to afford to live a life, as well as pay the mortgage and so the work needed, rest every month it got easier and easier, mortgage rates came down, wages went up. First 2 years were tough having to balance the books carefully but after that, we had it pretty easy - considering

MERFE

37 years old 2 years ago in the South West, no parental help, moved from the South East partly because of the property prices, we also have family in the South West.